Facts for 2014

The 2014 Hottest 100 was the twenty-second annual Hottest 100 countdown since the change of the format which allowed only songs from the previous year to be voted for.

The Countdown

The countdown took place in January of 2015 and featured a mixture of 73 different artists. 2,099,707 votes were counted in the countdown, an increase of 607,088 votes from the 2013 countdown which saw 1,492,619 votes counted.

The 2014 Hottest 100 countdown was yet again mired by controvery in the days preceding it. On January 13th an article written by former Triple J newsreader Mark Di Stefano appeared on the website Buzzfeed. The article was titled "Why Isn't Everyone Voting For 'Shake It Off' In The Hottest 100?" and led to the increased recognition of the Twitter hastag '#Tay4Hottest100'. This campaign, started as a misguided attempt to rig the countdown and bring attention to the fact that popular songs are often overlooked by Triple J, attracted vast amounts of attention from mainstream media debating the merits of whether or not the song should be included in the countdown. Due to the guidelines of the voting process, 'Shake It Off' was eligible to poll due to it being released in 2014, despite having not been played on Triple J that year. Since it had not been played on Triple J, the song was exclded from the suggested voting list released by Triple J. However, its exclusion from the list, coupled with the fact that the song had not only peaked at #1 on the ARIA charts but was also in its 21st consecutive week in the charts, gained criticism for the fact that a truly popular song would not poll in a countdown focused on finding the most popular, or 'hottest', song of the year.

Most of the focus of the campaign was based around the levels of 'musical elitism' that Triple J showed. However, most of those who defended Triple J stated that the Hottest 100 is generally reserved for artists who are "discovered or fostered" by Triple J and that it provides valuable exposure to those on the outer of the music industry. Despite this, those critical of Triple J concluded that Triple J sees itself as some sort of cultural zeitgeist who pick and choose music based on personal preference and what they deem as 'cool', as oppsed to the tastes of those who listen to the station.
Station manager Chris Scaddan told the media that while Taylor Swift is indeed eligible for the countdown, all would be revealed on the day of the countdown. He also made it clear he would rather that Triple J staff refrain from talking to the media about it. On January 20th, it was revealed that since the fast food chain KFC had made a Facebook post with the '#Tay4Hottest100' hashtag that the song could be disqualified due to the rules banning any form of corporate support for songs or artists as a way to hijack the countdown.

At the start of the countdown on January 26th, it was revealed that 'Shake It Off' was indeed disqualified from the countdown. Triple J also revealed their own Buzzfeed-style parody website named 'TripleJFeed' which listed the reasons why the song would not appear. They also stated that if 'Shake It Off' was indeed allowed to poll, it would have reached #12 and would have pushed the eventual #100 song, 'Switch Lanes' by Tkay Maidza, out of the countdown. To emphasise this point, Triple J created their own hashtag, '#Tkay4Hottest100', to drive home the point that excluding Taylor Swift is far less of a travesty than excluding an Austrlian artist who deserved to chart.

The 2014 countdown set a record for the most amount of Australian entries, with 59. This beats the previous record of 52 set in 1999 and equalled in 2007.

Chet Faker becomes the first artist since Powderfinger in 2003 to have 3 songs appear in the top 10. This record would again be matched in 2017 by Gang Of Youths. Additionally, Faker is one of the few #1 placegetters to be a solo performer. In addition to Faker, Denis Leary (1993), Alex Lloyd (2001), Bernard Fanning (2005), and Vance Joy (2013) also topped the chart as a solo performer.

The Hilltop Hoods' #3 appearance of 'Cosby Sweater' marks the third time that the band have reached the #3 positon. It had previously appeared in 2009 with 'Chase That Feeling', and had first appeared in 2006 with 'The Hard Road', which was incidentally the last time an all-Australian top 3 had occured before 2014.

After the controversy surrounding Taylor Swift's 'Shake It Off' and her eligibility despite not having been played on the station, numerous music websites such as Tone Deaf thought they had stumbled upon great hypocrisy by Triple when they revealed that Sia's 'Chandelier' reached #9 despite not having been played on the station. However they this had happened numerous time before, with Alanis Morissette featuring 3 unplayed songs in 1995, one of Green Day's 2 charting songs in 1998, and both U2 and Foo Fighters charting with an unplayed song in 2004 and 2009 respectively.

At #53, Kendrick Lamar's 'i' sets the record as the shortest song title in a countdown. Conversely, the longest title belongs to Panic! At The Disco's 'The Only Difference Between Martyrdom And Suicide Is Press Coverage' from 2006.

At #72, Run The Jewels featured with 'Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)' which featured Zack De La Rocha. De La Rocha had last appeared in 2001 while performing as the frontman for Rage Against The Machine. This 13 year abscence was a record shared with Ben Folds Five between 1999 and 2012, and Robert Smith of The Cure between 1997 and 2010 when he performed with Crystal Castles.
However, this record was later beaten in the 2016 countdown by The Avalanches, making their reappearence after 15 years, and beaten later in that same countdown, by Paul Kelly, who reappeared after a 16 year absence.

Artists Featured

Chet Faker was the best performer in the countdown with 4 tracks, 3 of which featured in the top 10. A further 8 artists reached 3 tracks each, while 10 artists appeared twice.

Scarlett Stevens (17, 33)
(Once with Illy and once as a member of San Cisco)

Robyn (59, 73)
(Once as a featured artist with Röyksopp, and once through a collaboration with Röyksopp)

Countries Featured

The 2014 Hottest 100 featured artists from 11 countries, including 59 from Australia, 15 from USA and 12 from England.

Australia's 59 entries broke the record set in 1999, and equalled in 2007, of 52 entries in a countdown.
However, this record was broken in the 2016 which featured 66 Australian songs.
Likewise, the 15 entries by the United States is a current record low for the country, which was again matched in 2015.

A Couple Of Notes

‘Uptown Funk', at #6, was a collaboration between Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars who are English and American, respectively. However, the track is counted as an English entry for simplicity.

‘New Dorp. New York.', at #34, was a collaboration between SBTRKT and Ezra Koenig who are English and American, respectively. However, the track is counted as an English entry for simplicity.

‘Won't Let You Down', at #36, was a collaboration between Hilltop Hoods and Maverick Sabre who are Australian and English, respectively. However, the track is counted as an Australian entry for simplicity.

‘Sunshine', at #52, was a collaboration between Flight Facilities and Reggie Watts who are Australian and American, respectively. However, the track is counted as an Australian entry for simplicity.